Succession

A fifth-generation family business owner, family talent advisor and successor development coach and mentor, Philip Mackeown knows more than most about the importance of nurturing family talent.

A member of the renowned Irish wholesale and trading Musgrave family, Mackeown has worked in his family business as an executive and non-executive family director and head of the family council.

The Dhawan family of India is taking their company SSF Plastics to the next level in family business evolution through initiatives in professionalisation, diversification, sustainability and engaging the next generation.

Saurabh Dhawan (pictured), the second generation family member leading business development, says the Mumbai-headquartered, self-described one-stop solution provider for all rigid plastic packaging needs has also been venturing into multiple startups, with next-gens at the helm.

There is careful planning involved at every stage of the business life-cycle, such as launching new product lines, entering new markets and moving into adjacent industries. An owner-managed business would be adept at managing such transitions, and the rigorous planning that precedes them.

Why is it then, that a different logic should apply when faced with the question of planning for succession to the family business?

In 1925, Vincent Massey, the scion of one of the wealthiest families in Canada, did something that Ed Rogers today would find unthinkable.

He quit.

Massey (pictured below right) was the fourth-generation heir to his family’s Massey-Harris farm equipment company, then already well on its way to becoming Canada’s first truly global firm. Despite this, Massey decided that his future lay not in tractors, but in public service and philanthropy. He later became governor general of Canada.